Starfield is one of the best games I've played this year. Starfield, also, is one of the must frustrating games I've played this year.
This may be the least buggiest Bethesda release yet but I don't know if that really means much. Nothing, in the end, made me lose too much progress but expect Bethesda jank. It's the nature of the beast and no one else is really making these kinds of games.
There are works that try to simulate the sandbox with a heavier focus on different aspects of the Bethesda game, but no other game can let you drop a thousand potatoes in a room and have them persist for your 200 hour long play time.
Starfield has a lot of systems that exist in better, more focused games but somehow manages to string it all together well enough for me to keep plates spinning.
I think the thing that lets Starfield down the most is the writing. Quest design is the most hampered by this aspect, and I can't help being frustrated by how cop aligned the whole game is.
You can be like three different kinds of cops and it's very obvious where the politics of this game land. You, the player, are only ever allowed to punish pirates and spacers. Rarely does the game allow you the opportunity to punish those in traditional means of power who are causing harm in this universe. When the game blesses you with the option to off a corrupt cop, it's treated as the most unconscionable thing imaginable.
Each and every one of the games' companion characters seem to operate on the same moral compass, so if you're not abiding by the "good" moral choices, you can expect to be ditched by the crew of the Constellation.
Despite all that, I love this game. I can totally understand why someone else may not. The ship builder rules.
This may be the least buggiest Bethesda release yet but I don't know if that really means much. Nothing, in the end, made me lose too much progress but expect Bethesda jank. It's the nature of the beast and no one else is really making these kinds of games.
There are works that try to simulate the sandbox with a heavier focus on different aspects of the Bethesda game, but no other game can let you drop a thousand potatoes in a room and have them persist for your 200 hour long play time.
Starfield has a lot of systems that exist in better, more focused games but somehow manages to string it all together well enough for me to keep plates spinning.
I think the thing that lets Starfield down the most is the writing. Quest design is the most hampered by this aspect, and I can't help being frustrated by how cop aligned the whole game is.
You can be like three different kinds of cops and it's very obvious where the politics of this game land. You, the player, are only ever allowed to punish pirates and spacers. Rarely does the game allow you the opportunity to punish those in traditional means of power who are causing harm in this universe. When the game blesses you with the option to off a corrupt cop, it's treated as the most unconscionable thing imaginable.
Each and every one of the games' companion characters seem to operate on the same moral compass, so if you're not abiding by the "good" moral choices, you can expect to be ditched by the crew of the Constellation.
Despite all that, I love this game. I can totally understand why someone else may not. The ship builder rules.